Tesla's well-known Gigafactory 1 has been a center of attention for people who are interested in the constantly growing momentum behind green energy, electric cars, and battery production. Therefore, it is not much of a surprise that this facility was headlined in the news again last month, as Tesla is starting to mass produce batteries as it ramps up to its goal of 35GWh of capacity and beyond.
However, as exciting as this project may be, it's actually just one of several other large-scale mega factories that are being built - with many of them coming from China.
China Leading the Charge
Simon Moores, Managing Director at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, explained that Tesla isn't unique and alone in its ambitions towards building lithium-ion batteries at scale. According to Value Walk, while the Tesla Gigafactory is vitally important from an EV vertical integration standpoint, a majority of new lithium-ion battery capacity is also largely being built in China.
Some of these plants are huge, such as the CATL facility at 50GWh. There is little doubt that China's current lithium-ion industry has come of age.
About China's Lithium-ion Industry
Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL) also has plans to build the largest lithium-ion mega factory of all time, but the company is not much known in North America. According to TechCrunch, it's already worth $11.5 billion and could even become a dominant player globally in the battery industry if it successfully increases its lithium-ion production capacity six-folds to 50GWh by the year 2020.
As of the moment, other Chinese manufacturers are also on a similar route. LG Chem, Panasonic, and Boston Power are building their own new mega factory plants in China, while companies such as BYD and Samsung are expanding already existing ones.
All lithium-ion plants in China currently possess a capacity of 16.4GWh, but by the year 2020, they are projected to combine for a total of 107.5GWh, which is more than impressive.
